1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a backup/recovery technique for a computer system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a network backup/recovery system, enables backup and/or recovery for protecting the computer system thoroughly.
2. Description of Related Art
The protection for the computer system in the public place is an important issue for a network administrator at present. In general, the public environments need the read only purpose for computer system, to avoid the damage from the user purposefully or involuntarily.
For example, the first kind of public environment is public inquiring computer system, Internet coffee shop, or the like. The computers are placed in the public place and needs to be administered, because they are easy to be destroyed. Secondly, the public environment refers to the school, where needs to set a plurality of computers to work in a certain state repeatedly. In the public place, the network administrator for the computer system demands a fixed and a stable using environment to protect the system in the normal state efficiently.
The conventional backup/recovery software, although having the backup/recovery function, wastes a lot of time executing the function, and needs the network administrator himself to operate hundreds of the client computers one by one . It is a difficult task. Referring to FIG. 1, a flowchart shows the conventional backup/recovery software accomplishing its mission. As shown in FIG. 1, the mission is to enable the recovery function for all of the client computers. First, the network administrator needs to accomplish the operation at the first client computer. Then, he goes to the second client computer to accomplish it. Finally, he keeps on going to the front of the n-th client computer to accomplish the entire mission. Assuming that the recovery operation for each client computer needs 3 minutes, then 300 minutes are needed for 100 sets of client computers, and it costs a long period of time.
For example, the conventional backup/recovery software, such as the Ghost software developed by Symantec Corporation, needs the network administrator to go to the front of each client computer to execute the Ghost backup program so as to backup data for the user for backup procedure. It is a single task and takes about 8 minutes per Gigabyte, in general. Besides, the recovery procedure also needs the network administrator to go to the front of each client computer to execute the Ghost recovery program. Prior to this, the network administrator has to boot the operating system beforehand.
FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate two operating flowcharts showing the use of the Ghost software executing a backup operation and a recovery operation respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, the network administrator goes to the front of each client computer to operate the disk operating system (DOS) and then executes the Ghost backup program to backup data stored in the selected hard disk/partition to a file F. As shown in FIG. 3, the network administrator goes to each client computer to operate the disk operating system (DOS) and then executes the Ghost recovery program at the client computer to recovery the data from the file F to the selected hard disk/partition.
Since the Ghost software backs up all the valid data stored in the hard disk, the data itself backed up by the Ghost software occupies an extremely large space in the hard disk. In addition, all data currently used by the file system of the operating system (OS) will be backed up into the file F. This occurs no matter whether such related data would be further changed in the future or not, thereby further occupying a great amount of space in the hard disk.
Another presently available backup/recovery software, such as the Goback software developed by Adaptec Corporation, needs the network administrator to go to the front of each client computer to operate it during recovery process. Prior to executing the recovery program, there is no need to boot the operating system (OS) in advance. Referring to FIG. 4, it illustrates a recovery flowchart of the conventional Goback software. As shown in FIG. 4, the network administrator goes to the front of each client computer to press the space key, indicates the system to initiate the recovery work, and then the Goback software recoveries the hard disk to selected state.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need in the art to provide a backup/recovery software with a remotely controlled function.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a network backup/recovery system and its method of backup/recovery that can backup/recovery the computer system instantaneously. An object of the present invention is to return at least one hard disk to a predetermined state. The improvement is remarkable for the backup/recovery system while the network administrator does not need to go to the front of each client computer to operate the computer system.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides a method for backing up and/or recovering data.
One aspect of the present invention involves a network backup/recovery system for backing up data and recovering a storage device immediately. The system involves a client management part for controlling at least a client and a server management part for controlling a server and monitoring each using condition of the client. In this embodiment, the server management part sends a predetermined message to the client management part according to each using condition of the client, and the client management part involves implementing a predetermined backup/recovery procedure according to the received predetermined message.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the server may remotely control at least one backup/recovery operation of the client. The client management part executes a client management program at the client. The server management part executes a server management program at the server. The predetermined message includes a booting message of the client. The predetermined procedure includes issuing a command from the server to the client. The system determines and backs up a valid data being changed within established data stored in a hard disk. The server management part communicates with the client management part over the Internet. The system sends a backup-completed message when the changed valid data is backed up. The changed valid data is determined according to whether the established data has been used in a file system in an operating system. The valid data is contained in an allocated cluster within the file system. The file system is a FAT file system, a FAT32 file system, a NTFS system or an EXT2 file system for UNIX.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.